China Accelerates Digital Currency Rollout, starting with McDonalds

China’s central Bank — People’s Bank of China — has accelerated the rollout process for their new Digital Currency known as DCEP (Digital Currency / Electronic Payment). In a promotion event on Wednesday, the National Development and Reform Commission named 14 firms that will be first to adopt the new currency. This includes foreign owned enterprises like McDonalds, local hotels, convenience stores and bookstores.

DCEP is a digital form of China’s National Currency RMB

DCEP will be a stable coin at a 1:1 peg to the RMB. Prototype wallets from the Agriculture Bank of China has shown a feature to directly convert account balance to DCEP (1:1 conversion).

List of Partners

Retail
金丰餐饮 (Jin Feng Catering)
健坤餐饮 (Jian Kun Group)
金百禾 (Jin­bai He)
麦当劳 (McDonald’s)
星巴克 (Starbucks)
赛百味 (Subway)
银联无人超市 (UnionPay Supermarket)
京东无人超市 (JD Supermarket)
维莱可烘焙 (Welike)
昆仑好客便利店 (uS­mile)
庆丰包子铺 (Qingfeng Bun Shop)

Logistics
中海 SPV (China Shipping SPV) — Logistics
菜鸟驿站 (Cainiao) — Logistics

Hotel & Entertainment
凯骊酒店 (Kaili) — Hotel
奥斯卡影城 (Henan Oscar) — Cinema

Other
中体倍力 (Zhongti Bili) — Gym
中信书店 (CITIC Press Group) — Bookstore
桃李阁 (Taoli Pavil­ion) — Tourist Attraction
新时期无人车 (Ne­olix) — Autonomous Vehicles

Launch in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics

China’s state television channel, CCTV has talked about a full launch of DCEP in time for the Winter 2022 olympic games.

Centralized Blockchain

It is no secret that DCEP borrows heavily from Blockchain Technology, the technology invented by Satoshi Nakamoto for Bitcoin. DCEP will use a UTXO accounting system to each transaction discreetly with a unique ID. It will also rely heavily on digital signatures such as private keys to sign transactions.

No release timetable yet

Sina Finance talks about DCEP its upcoming

Sadly the full release schedule of DCEP has not been confirmed by the PBoC. A lot has been teased about the project in state affiliated media such as Sina and CaiXin.